JOLLEY: METH CORRUPTING MIDDLE CLASS

Marshall County Circuit Court Judge Tim Jolley's view from the bench
provides a unique perspective of the methamphetamine problem.

He recalled how he returned to his home county after graduating law school,
eventually prosecuting drug and homicide cases for the district attorney's
office before becoming a judge nearly six years ago.

"When I began the practice of law in 1981, you did not see very many middle
class people using drugs, or at least if they did them, they were smart
enough, I guess, to keep it secret and not get caught," Jolley said.

"It was primarily people that absolutely couldn't afford to buy drugs who
were using them. And a good portion of that still is true today. The drug of
choice then was marijuana. The other drug heavily in use was dilaudid, a
pain medication used in terminal cancer cases."

That changed in the late 1980s when the courts began seeing more users of
powdered cocaine.

"Marijuana and cocaine (were) the two most popular drugs at that time," he
said.

From the standpoint of pharmaceutical drugs, Jolley said, "We began to see a
lot of abuse of hydrocodon. In the mid 90's, we began to see a lot of crack
cocaine, rock-cocaine, being used. Then, all of a sudden, in the mid
nineties we began to see crystal meth come on the scene."

The judge said he asked users who came before him why they preferred crystal
meth as opposed to cocaine.

"They said, `Number one, you get the same type high you get from cocaine.
Number two, it lasts a lot longer. And number three, it's a lot less
expensive.' So we began to see not only the folks you might say were lower
income type folks -- people who couldn't afford it -- we began to see middle
class folks using it, including professionals like teachers."

Within a year or so of becoming a circuit judge, Jolley said, he "began to
see issues about drug abuse crop up in divorce cases. It wasn't just
occasionally -- it was getting to be on a regular basis. Today, I am seeing
at least one divorce case or as many as three or for per week where drug
abuse is involved, and it is usually crystal meth."

Child custody becomes a thorny issue when both parents are drug users, he
said.

"One of the problems this causes for a judge is, you may have a situation
were both parents are claiming to be fit parents and want custody of the
child and both parents are using crystal meth. I am not going to return a
child to that kind of environment."

Jolley then has the daunting task of finding a suitable place for the child
or children to live. The task becomes complicated when there are no suitable
relatives to take responsibility for the innocent young victims. His only
recourse is to place them with Department of Human Resources.

Restoring the parents, in cases like this, to a drug free status wherein
they can resume a productive roll as parents is another aspect he has to
deal with.

"In divorce cases, I order people into treatment programs with the
understanding that they will not receive visitation priviledges unless they
join the program and will not regain custody of their children until they
are clean from drugs," he said.

With the number of meth labs discovered each year on the rise, the workload
and hard choices for the judicial system will certainly present challenges.